


Falling For You

by mutterandmumble



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cold Weather, Developing Relationship, First Meetings, Fluff, Hinata Dramatics, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mild Language, Not Beta Read, Pre-Relationship, all that fun stuff, exactly one swear, it’s fall yall, mild descriptions of anxiety, pumpkin patches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-09 13:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20995907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutterandmumble/pseuds/mutterandmumble
Summary: Then his running runs him right into someone.Head-on. Or ratherhishead rams intotheirchest, because this guy isbig.Bigas in a good head taller than Hinata, torso like a tree trunk, arms that are hidden beneath the layers of clothes he wears- the same sort as everyone else, a coat and a scarf, two gloves and a bright green hat- but give off the vibe of someone heavily muscled regardless. He’s kind of scary. And when Hinata notices that the cup of coffee in his hand is suspiciously lighter than it was not ten seconds ago, when he glares with some good, strong derision at the lid where it lies useless in the grass, when he swings his head up to actuallylookat the guy-Well.———-In which Hinata loses his little sister, finds his little sister, and meets someone new





	Falling For You

**Author's Note:**

> This took forever. It just... did. I’ve been busy applying to colleges and that’s just been one mess after another so I’ve been feeling a little off lately. This was a lot of fun though! I’m pretty happy with it, actually. I have a big soft spot for these guys. They’ve got that whole opposites-attract/unlikely-friendship thing going on and I’ve always liked that

It really is a nice day outside- the air cool, the wind tousling his hair around his ears enough that it’s appropriately ruffled but not quite messy _ ,  _ the sky a patched-together quilt of light-gray-dark-gray clouds. Even the leaves strewn about the ground are actually crunching when he steps on them instead of lying there limp and floppy and sad. Hinata fits right in too, nose and cheeks brushed red and scarf loose around his shoulders; and Yachi beside him is just as natural, hair done up in two big braids and torso bundled up into a big winter coat. He’s even got a paper cup from one of the fold-up tables set up out near the front of the farm, the one that had a coffee machine (that he nearly broke) and packets of sugar and cream (that he panicked while opening and spilled over his jacket), and a very nice employee who is currently trying to keep the both of them from shooting straight off of the face of the planet.

Because as nice of a day as it may be, it’s about to become very, very bad if he cannot find his little sister.

“We’ll find her,” he tells Yachi, yanking the lid off of his cup so he can again fill it to the brim. In goes another three containers of cream, followed by two more packets of sugar and the stirring stick he’s been incessantly chewing on for these past few minutes. Little splashes of light-brown dot against the table, and with his eyes wide and his lungs bursting in wingbeats and his heart pounding somewhere down near his thumbs, Hinata lunges across the table to grab himself a handful of napkins. If he stops moving right now, he thinks that he’ll melt right into the earth. “She’s small! She can’t have gotten too far!”

“It’s a  _ pumpkin  _ patch Shouyou, oh my god it’s a  _ pumpkin  _ patch,” Yachi gasps. She grabs at his shoulder, looping her other into the crook of his elbow. Then, like Yachi does when things have gotten all mixed up and swirled in her head, she pushes him this way and that, rattling like a bare tree branch in the wind. “She’s  _ orange _ Shouyou, she’s orange like you, she’s  _ small _ and she’s  _ orange _ and this is a pumpkin patch and we’re  _ never going to find her. _ ”

This is a  _ pumpkin patch,  _ Hinata realizes with what feels like three quick, heavy blows to the stomach and a good knock upside the head. His toes curl against the inserts of his boots, flex against the laces and start prickling with dread. His ears have gone numb beneath his hat, blood cold as it churns through his veins.

“Oh  _ no. _ ”

“Oh no!”

“Um.” Very Nice Employee blinks as both Yachi and Hinata whip around to look straight at him. Hinata’s breaths are heaving from his chest, cleaving his throat in two. Yachi has begun to make little hiccupy sounds through her teeth. “I can tell everyone to keep an eye out for her if you would like? Your um…”

“My little sister,” Hinata tells him. “My little sister! Her name’s Hinata Natsu, and she’s nine and her hair is red and-“

“And she looks just like him!” Yachi bursts in, with all of the subtlety that panic affords. 

“And she looks just like me!”

They both nod, Yachi’s cheek brushing against Hinata’s sleeve with enough force for it to make that  _ sch-sch-sch  _ sound that he’s only ever heard from winter coats, something he distantly notes as his own head bobs like a buoy. Fitting, as he feels that there must be a rush of bubbles or seawater or lightheaded laughter where his brain once was; he is squelching into his clothing, melding with the coffee cup in his hands, going liquid from head to toe. His brain is going wild, so it’s mindless that he drinks. And drinks and drinks and drinks until his heart races with great, thundering  _ booms. _

“Alright,” the employee says. His nametag says Sugawara. There’s a little doodle of a bat above the U, and Hinata wants to cry. “If you'd give me a moment please-“

He has a radio clipped to his belt. Hinata waits with bated breath as he speaks into it, holds it against his ear and scrunches his face against the garbled tones; Yachi squirms next to him, humming softly and incessantly as she rocks back and forth, back and forth. Hinata moves with her, rising and swelling and falling as he takes tiny, constant sips of his coffee and presses his arm against hers. A burst of static and some frantic, high-pitched keening from the both of them later, the message has been relayed and they’ve both begun to teeter on the edge of tears.

“There we go. It’s a start at least,” Sugawara tells them, clipping the radio back in place.

“You’re a  _ saint _ ,” Yachi sobs. 

“I try,” Sugawara says. “Now do either of you have a phone? Have you tried calling her?”

“We both have phones,” Yachi tells him. “But Natsu doesn’t. Should we have let her borrow one of ours? Oh god, that’s something that people do right? Should we have done that? Should we have  _ done  _ that, Shouyou?”

She’s begun to shake him again. She’s surprisingly strong, and Hinata finds that he has to dig his heels into the ground just to stay upright.

“No, no it’s alright!” Sugawara placates, palms up and all. “How about this. One of you can go look for her and the other can stay here, and when one of you either finds her or we hear back from my coworkers, you can text. Sound good?”

“That’s such a good idea,” Hinata whispers, near reverent. Here he was tossing his head and wringing his hands and circling his index finger around and around his thumb when Sugawara was here the whole time! Sugawara, who by some sort of innate knowledge has set them on the right path! Yes, yes, they  _ have  _ to find Natsu now, because if they don’t Hinata’s mother won’t let him set foot outside of the house until he’s old and gray and three steps from death. 

“But which one of us should go?” Yachi asks. 

Important question, important question. He doesn’t have the time to dwell.

So which one of them? Once their initial panic subsides, Yachi is always better in an emergency but Hinata won’t burn out nearly as fast; Yachi can keep her head on her shoulders and her thoughts straight, but Hinata ping-pongs all around like beetle in a jar. Honestly either one of them could be a disaster of the completely irreversible sort, where they bring down every _ thing  _ and every _ one  _ around them with one clumsy swoop of their legs from beneath their waist.

But in the end it’s Hinata’s sister who was lost. It was Hinata who lost his sister. And now, it is Hinata’s responsibility to find her.

Emboldened and enlightened alike, Hinata stuffs the rest of his cash into the tip jar. Then he knocks back the rest of his coffee- literally  _ knocks  _ it back so that the liquid sloshes against his throat and his eyes tear up at their corners- and pulls a gloved hand over the back of his mouth, catching his breath around the wool. The artificial adrenaline is beginning to meld first with the nerves that had already been making his heart jump this way and that and then with the natural energy that has been puttering away inside of him since the moment he was born. By this point he’s near touching the sky. He’s jittering so badly that his teeth clatter together and he’s not entirely sure that his soul hasn’t curdled in his chest and left him sour all over.

“I’ll go,” he says through the buzz of sugar. “But first-”

He takes the lid off of his cup again and pours himself a good, strong serving. More coffee can  _ never _ hurt, especially when he’s as high-strung as he is now- once he adds in even more cream, even more sugar he’ll be set for the next few centuries.

Then he fumbles the lid back on, takes one big gulp, waves sharply before either one of them can speak and then takes off like a rocket or a bullet or someone high on fear and enough caffeine to kill a water buffalo. Right away he gets a fair few dirty looks as he races through the crowds, stumbling lightheaded through set rows of pumpkins and narrowly dodging big family clusters where they clot along the edges of the fields, but he doesn’t care; already he’s begun to lose himself to the movement, to the careful guarding of his coffee and the dart of his eyes as he scans this way and that for the telltale bob of Natsu’s head. He runs, and the cold sits heavy in his lungs, coating their insides with a fine layer of frost and making his breaths burn as they rattle up and out of his chest. He runs against the wind and the leaves and the lose crumbles of soil. He runs until his legs are shaky and his vision is shaky and the world around him is shaky and shivery and shuddering but his conviction remains as strong as ever.

He runs wild, right alongside his mind. He’s listed, in these thirty seconds, forty ways he’s failed and fifty ways Natsu may have gotten hurt; he’s found the worst-case scenario and worse than that he’s found the  _ worst- _ case scenario and worse than that he’s found the  _ worst-case  _ scenario and worse than that-

If his brain worked with this sort of sheer efficiency in math class he’d never need another tutor again.

But this is not math class. This is a mistake and a result; this is one thing and another. This is Hinata having been careless and Natsu now being without care. This is two cups of coffee bolstering his nerves and now a complete inability to stand still, lest he find himself spiraling into neat little circles or big, sloppy circles or triangles or something. He’s not picky. When needed he can actually be rather adaptable.

So he runs. In and out of the pumpkin patch, all around until he’s properly lost himself and has resorted to babbling near senselessly at any person who doesn’t run when he skids to a stop inches from their face and spouts a messy outline of events in disconnected bursts.

He runs and he babbles and he runs and he prattles and he runs and he rattles on and on and on. He’s not sure how much time has passed. His phone is zipped into his coat’s internal pocket (because it’s already got one big crack across the center- it doesn’t need anymore) and he can’t wear watches because the feeling of plastic when it scratches up against his skin drives him mad. He doesn’t recognize where he is, and he can’t see the table anymore; he’s beginning to lose hope.

Then his running runs him right into someone.

Head-on. Or rather _his _head rams into _their _chest, because this guy is _big._ _Big _as in a good head taller than Hinata, torso like a tree trunk, arms that are hidden beneath the layers of clothes he wears- the same sort as everyone else, a coat and a scarf, two gloves and a bright green hat- but give off the vibe of someone heavily muscled regardless. He’s kind of scary. And when Hinata notices that the cup of coffee in his hand is suspiciously lighter than it was not ten seconds ago, when he glares with some good, strong derision at the lid where it lies useless in the grass, when he swings his head up to actually _look _at the guy-

Well. In one effortless leap he makes the jump from  _ sort of scary  _ to completely and utterly  _ terrifying. _

Maybe it’s big, strong lines along the sharp furrow of a brow; maybe it’s the way that his jaw works slowly, undulating in what Hinata is sure is absolute, unadulterated fury; maybe it’s the eyebrows so pale that they’re nearly nonexistent, or the way that his eyes bore right down into Hinata’s with such intensity that he feels his insides are being wrenched up to his outside. His heart beats on his sleeve and his lungs flutter on his back. His eyes are stuck firmly into their sockets, and he  _ looks _ , and he’s  _ scared _ , and maybe it’s because of the defined nose. Maybe it’s the sharp angles.

Maybe it’s the coffee drenching his front.

Or maybe,  _ maybe  _ it’s the little girl with bright orange hair clinging to his hand, who looks up at Hinata with her big, brown eyes for just a moment before breaking into laughter.

Now Hinata is a rational person. Obviously there’s only one thing that could be happening here- he knows because he’s seen his fair share of action movies. He’s slept through a good number of police dramas. He’s even dragged Yachi to a horror movie once, intent on proving to everyone who told him that he couldn’t (Tsukishima, Kageyama, Noya, the lady selling the tickets, his mother) that he  _ could, _ in fact, make it through one whole screening in one whole piece.

He couldn’t. Neither of them could. He had cried.

But! He’s prepared now! He  _ knows  _ this situation, he  _ knows  _ this story, he  _ knows  _ what to do here.

He takes a deep breath in. He steels himself, right down to his core. Then he  _ goes  _ for it.

“Look,” he says, talking very fast, very low, “I don’t have any money right now because I gave it all to Sugawara-san at the coffee table and I don’t wear any watches so I can’t trade you one of those, but I _do _have like two sticks of gum and an empty coffee cup, and I’m pretty sure there are some places where they give you cash for recycling those but don’t take my word for that. That might be plastic waterbottles. Or newspapers. Either way you didn’t hear it from me. But listen, _listen_, if you just give her back-” he points to Natsu here, because he has to be very clear, this is like those stories about genies and wishes and stuff, there’s no room for mistake, “-then all of that and more can be yours. Look, I’ve even got a friend here, and she always carries these little hard candies. You know the ones? We get this done fast and I can get you some of those too. So whaddya say? We got a deal?”

Big scary man stares. Natsu’s not stopped laughing once, and Hinata feels sweat plastering his hair to his forehead.

Then big scary man looks to Natsu and she looks right back with no fear at all- god, she’s ten times braver than he’ll ever be. That’s unwavering eye-contact. Hinata’s been looking at the coffee stain for so long he’s beginning to see stars.

“Is this him?” big scary ( _ big _ , terrifying) man rumbles. His voice is deep and low and kind of attrac-

_ No.  _ No. Nope, nope, nope, he’s  _ not  _ going down that path, not today. Nope. Nu-uh.

_ But.  _

Big scary (???) man’s hair peeks out from beneath his hat, and it’s light and soft-looking and ends in sharp bristles along his hairline. It looks… good. It looks good. Hinata is very confused.

“Yep! Thanks for helping me find him,” Natsu says. She detaches herself from his side and waltzes over to Hinata, cool as can be. “He’s sorry about the coffee.”

“I’m?” Hinata says faintly. He is whirring like a machine. There’s nothing coherent in his head, because big scary man let Natsu go? Natsu’s not scared of big scary man? Hinata’s still got his head on his shoulders and his feet on the ground and the aftershocks of big scary man’s voice running in tremors through his chest? Big scary man is kinda hot, when Hinata doesn’t think he’s about to be horribly murdered? There’s like, something about his eyes when they’re not piercing in one side of his head and right out the other. And the hat, the hat’s cute. It’s got a pompom. 

Um?

“Um?”

“The coffee,” Natsu repeats, elbowing his side. “You’re sorry about the coffee.” 

“Um?”

“And for causing trouble.”

“Fghh?”

“And for running into him, and for trying to bribe him with nothing but two sticks of gum, and for pulling him away from his family. And for his coat. Those are  _ expensive,  _ Shouyou!”

Those are  _ expensive,  _ Shouyou.

“I think I’ve died.” Hinata tells her. She pats his shoulder.

“If mom ever finds out about this you probably will.”

“ _ Wait- _ “

“But if you clean my room for me, I think we can keep that from happening.”

“You’re  _ evil _ ,” Hinata breathes, impressed. For a moment he’s focused on nothing else; it’s just him and his little sister, trading jabs as always, and there is no big scary (hot? Scary?  _ Hot? _ ) guy who’s coat he just ruined and who’s probably  _ not _ planning to murder Hinata but is holding himself like he is looming in front of him. There is nothing to see here! Not at all!

“No,” Natsu says. And she smiles in that way she does when she’s managed to goad him into some trouble that  _ he  _ will be yelled at for and  _ she  _ will conveniently be nowhere near, “I’m just taking an opportunity. Now go apologize to Aone, and maybe I’ll  _ think  _ about not making you do my chores tonight too.”

Evil! Evil! Where did she  _ learn  _ this? It can’t have been him, right? He tries to set a good example. Just yesterday he picked an ice cube up off the ground instead of just kicking it under the fridge, and the  _ dedication  _ that took, the  _ restraint,  _ the  _ responsibility-  _ that’s what being a good big brother is all about. 

He doesn’t even know who Aone is! Did he miss something? An introduction? A basic context clue?

“Who’s Aone?” 

Natsu looks at him like he’s stupid. Then she raises her arm very slowly and points (and Hinata really feels that he should have seen this coming) right at big sca- at  _ Aone. _

Naturally. Of course! Of course! Well you know what, he’s half-competent half of the time, and throughout this whole ordeal his soul’s remained half inside of his body and that has to count for something. He can handle this! 

“I!” he says looking at Aone. His throat goes dry and his legs go wobbly and he ignores them both. “I’m sorry about the coffee! And your coat! And for causing trouble!”

Aone stares. He seems to do a lot of that.

Then, just as he’s been quiet for a full (very, very long minute), and just as Hinata’s tightened his hand around Natsu’s arm and he’s begun letting his eyes dart this way and that, looking for an escape route, Aone speaks.

“It’s fine. I have siblings. I understand.”

Hinata feels his breath leave his lungs and, bit-by-bit, his soul return to his body. It feels as though some great blockage in his brain has cleared up, and he can again think freely and rapidly and along any lines that he chooses. And think he does; in fast little blips that leave nearly as soon as they arrive, in bits of half-words and phrases, in images and concepts and (god forbid)  _ impulses _ .

Thinking was a mistake, Hinata thinks (so it goes- there’s no escape for him) as he straightens up and prepares to make a fool of himself. He ought to think a little less.

“So your coat,” he starts. Natsu elbows him; he chooses to take that as a show of her support. “Sorry about that! I wasn’t looking where I was going and I was worried about Natsu and my brain was just going  _ bllleeerghh,  _ you know? But I can like get it dry cleaned or something for you, if you want. Or something like that. I don’t actually know if you can just like,  _ get  _ coffee stains out of clothing or if it takes something special, or maybe I could just like… I don’t know, but I can get it cleaned somehow, I promise! I’ll google it or something!”

He’s breathing heavily by the time he’s gotten through his tirade. Aone just blinks at him. Slow and deliberate, like a cat. Shouyou’s not even going to pretend that it isn’t endearing.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Well now he’s  _ gotta. _

“Oh please! It’s polite! Tell ‘im, Natsu!”

Natsu squints at him suspiciously. Hinata feels sweat beading along his hairline, mixing with the bright sheen of his  _ blatant ulterior motives _ . So he’s not subtle! Sue him!

“Yes,” Natsu says eventually. “Polite. It’s about politeness. Which Shouyou has been very concerned with up until now.”

Hinata shoves her away softly, gritting his teeth. Then he puts on the biggest smile he can manage and pours all of his energy into coming across as friendly as possible. Granted, he’s currently running on a  _ lot _ of energy, so when Aone looks a little put-off, when the skin scrunches around his eyes and his stare becomes even more stoney, Hinata can understand where he’s coming from. But he’s too far in now- now he’s got to see this through.

“C’mon! Just let me do this for you, and then we’ll be almost even. Whaddya say?”

Aone stares for a moment longer. He looks like he’s thinking very, very hard.

“Alright,” he decides on eventually. “But just that. Nothing else.” Then he’s back to silence, but Hinata’s buzzing excitedly.  _ Boom.  _ Just like that, Hinata’s  _ guaranteed _ that they will be seeing each other again, that they’ll have to exchange numbers or emails or something and then he can make himself a new friend and everything is going to fall into place. He’s good at this- he should start a website or something.

“Great! If I could get your number or your email or something we can talk about it later. Would that work?”

Aone’s phone was already half out of his pocket. They seem to be working on the same wavelength, the two of them- it  _ must  _ be a sign.

Natsu is decidedly less impressed with the cosmic workings of fate or the universe or (giving credit where credit is due) Hinata himself. In fact, she looks downright exasperated.

“Alright,” she says. “Now that you’ve finally  _ apologized  _ properly-” and again, he’s elbowed, “-let’s go find Yachi. She’s more responsible than you. More fun.”

And suddenly Hinata’s giddiness dissipates to the cold autumn air as his stomach drops through his legs and into the ground.  _ Whoomph. _ There Hinata goes- right to the center of the Earth like the absent-minded, easily distracted mess that he is!  _ Blam  _ goes his energy, right into his spine!  _ Woosh!  _ There goes his will from his body, fluttering up towards the clouds in the sky!

Fuck!

Oh, she’s going to be so  _ mad. _

“Crap!  _ Yachi! _ ”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Bonus:**

All that follows is a disaster. It’s a complete, unmitigated disaster.

Yachi’s worked herself right up to the edges of a frenzy by the time Hinata finally texts her. And when she finally comes stumbling to where they’re at, hands pushing at her face and tugging through her (now mussed-up and unruly) braids, she looks like she’s ready to drop dead. 

And then she sees Aone and turns as pale as a sheet, and Hinata thinks for a moment that she actually died right there on the spot.

It takes some time, but eventually they convince her that  _ no, she’s not about to die  _ and  _ he’s really nice I promise, he helped find Natsu,  _ and then they decide altogether that if they’re  _ there  _ they may as well meet Aone’s family.

Aone’s family, which consists of his five siblings and his mother, all of whom are scattered throughout the patch like pieces of some search-and-find game. They meet each other, all at once and then one-by-one, and suddenly Hinata is sucked right into the fold so quickly that it gives him whiplash. Thirty seconds in and he has no clue where he’s supposed to be. But he lost what sense of self-preservation he had back at the coffee table, so with his hat snug around his ears and his dignity well and truly trampled, he dives right in.

He immediately loses one shoe to the corn silo and the other to a swarm of small, white-haired children. By the time the first fifteen minutes have run their messy, clunky course Yachi has almost cried twice and himself three times. He’s running still on  _ caffeine  _ and  _ adrenaline  _ and  _ instinct  _ alone, more stitched-together body parts than human being, and it shows; he gestures enthusiastically and knocks his knuckles right into Aone’s throat, he stumbles over his words and then a tree root, he throws a beanbag at one of the games with far too much force and ends up smacking a disgruntled parent in the face- he’s a hazard. A bright orange hazard with energy pouring from his arms and his legs and his mouth and his eyes.

But at the end of the day he still walks away with his little sister and his best friend  _ and  _ a new number in his phone. So mini disaster aside (and all of those  _ chores  _ Natsu’s gonna make him do), it’s really the best he could have hoped for.  _ _

Now he just has to figure out what to  _ text. _

It never ends, does it? He should drink some more coffee- that’ll help him figure this out. It always does.

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment if you enjoyed!! I love hearing from you guys!!


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